Trust; they say it’s the cornerstone of any healthy relationship. The relationship you have with your customers is no exception.
Selling conservatories can be a tricky business, can’t it?
If you’re experiencing erratic or low sales, and you frequently find your leads are drying up, it could be a sign that you need to build more consumer trust.
Especially in an industry such as conservatories where you’re going to be making improvements to someone’s property over a significant period of time, there has to be a degree of trust in there somewhere. But how?
Below, I’m going to give you some key tips on how you can build consumer trust within your conservatory business.
1. Understand your customers
The key to building trust is to first develop a clear understanding of your customers.
I’ve found one of the best ways to do this is to sit everyone down from sales and marketing, all the way to customer service, and find out what questions your customers are asking.
Next, create a list of these common questions to try and get into the mindset of your potential customers. This will help you to figure out what questions they need answered, and what challenges they are facing.
Buyer personas will help you explore your ideal buyer more closely. For more information on how to develop buyer personas and why they are important, take a look at my blog entitled ‘Why Buyer Personas are Important When it Comes to Selling Conservatories’.
2. Create quality content
Use the information you’ve collected to come up with quality content. This could be anything from blogs and ebooks, to videos and easy-to-read infographics.
Did you know that 61 per cent of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content and are also more likely to buy from that company?
With one of my previous clients, we found creating content that helped talk their prospective customers through their installation process was hugely successful.
It gave the customers a good idea of exactly what would happen, how long the service would take, and what they could expect when working with that particular company.
Outlining and addressing all your potential customers’ concerns before they even have to ask will help to build their trust, so they’ll be happier and more likely to want to move through the buyer’s journey.
Creating quality content that addresses relevant concerns, problems and challenges your readers may be experiencing will build authority and help you to become a thought leader in your industry.
3. Educate your sales team
Of course, taking the time to understand your audience and create quality content will mean nothing if they get to the decision stage of the process and are met with an overly pushy sales team.
An important step in establishing trust is to educate your sales team, and teach them to listen to prospects and respond, rather than simply delivering a sales pitch.
If your sales team can take on this approach, and are able to listen and answer questions – or even better, direct them to your trust-building content whilst doing so – then you’ll find you’ll be able to close a lot more sales.
Remember, your sales team should be helpful first, and sell later.
4. Keep it professional
The way you respond to negativity says a lot about your company. Social media in particular has proven to be a landmine that can build or destroy trust if you’re not careful.
If a customer expresses dissatisfaction or a legitimate problem via ANY channel, the worst thing you can do is ignore it. Burying your head in the sand will not give the best impression to the customer, or anyone else for that matter.
Recent stats show that 56 per cent of customer tweets to companies are being ignored. Don’t let your customers be in that 56 per cent.
Always respond professionally. If you’ve made a mistake, acknowledge it, apologise, and point the customer to a direct way of contacting you to discuss the problem further (preferably via phone or email), rather than addressing it on a public forum.
Customers need to feel valued, so prove that you care and send a follow-up to make sure you’ve resolved their problem.
Conclusion
Where would we be without trust? Probably not selling very many conservatories, that’s for sure. Building trust with your customers is of the utmost importance, especially in industries where you’re going to be visiting someone’s home.
Take the time to understand your customers, and develop quality content that addresses their problems and makes them feel at ease. Use buyer personas to help understand what those problems are.
Your content should also shine through to your sales team, who need to be educated on how to talk to customers the right way. Remember, they should be helpful first, and sell later – when the customer has given them permission to do so.
Last but certainly not least, you need to respond to negativity in a professional manner, that proves to the customer you care. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge your failings and do whatever you can to fix the problem – that’s what helps build trust.
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